The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-05-26

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if it has any and cut the top back to
a strong bud two or three feet from
the ground, many cut lower I often do
SO myself. Served in this way they
will be more sure to grow, start
stronger and make larger trees the
first year than if all the top had been
left on, so it is easy to see the impor-
tance of thorough pruning fresh plant
ed trees.
The common distance for planting
apple trees is thirty feet apart each
way. Peach, plum and pear twenty
feet is sufficient. -.-.. 49,
Were I asked to give a selection of
fruits for an acre lot for a beginner I
would say about 20 apple, 20
peaches, 10 standard pear, 8
dwarf pear, 10 cherry, 2 crab
apple, 2 pecans, 2 japanese Persim-
mon, II grape and IL each Gooseber-
ry, raspberry, currents and pie plant
and 100 strawberry plants. These pro-
perly planted on the borders will give
plenty Of room for garden vegetables
and if the selections are properly made
will give fruit the year round. The
Japanese persimmon should be planted
on the south side of building. If I
were not limited to space for simply an
orchard would plant 100 apple, 100
peach, 25 pear, 25 cherry, 20 plum, Is
grape and from six to twelve of other
fruits. Grape, strawberry, &C., should
be in every garden, they do not get
killed by late frost and are sure crop
and how delicious is a dish of straw
berries all smothered in cream, too
much praise can not be made of this
noble fruit. We are far ahead of We
olden times when the varieties of
strawberry were very limited and the
garden was carefully supplied with
material for new planting from the
woods. Old Tusser, in his Give Hun
dred Points of Good Husbandry,"
points out where the best plants of his
time could be- had, and turns them
over with an abrupt, farmer-like con-
tempt of little matters to feminine
hands:
''Wife, into the garden, and set me plot
With strawberry roots, of the best to be got;
Such growing abroad, among thorns and the wood,
Well chosen and picked, prove excellent good
What a country we have. Not
hardly fruit in the whole catalogue
of fruits but what succeeds well with
us, but they will not do we'll without
some attention as the poet says eve
know the right but yet the wrong per-
sue."
The apple in the most remote periods
is the subject of praise, among writer's
and poets, and the old mythologies all
endow it's fruit>with wonderful virtues.
The allegorical tree Of knowledge bore
apples, and the celebrated golden fruit
of the orhards of Hesperus, guarded
by the sleepless dragon which it was
one of the triumphs of Hurcules to
slay, were also apples according to old
legends. Among the heather gods of
the north, there were apples fabled to
possess the power of confe1ring i'm
mortality, which were carefully watch
ed over by the goddess Iduna, and
kept for the especial desire Of the
gods who felt themselves growing old.
AS the mistletoe grew chiefly on the
apple and the oak, the former tree
was looked upon with great respect
and reverence by the ancient Druids
of Britain; and even to this day, in
some parts of England, the antique
custom of saluting the apple tree in
the orchards, in the hope Of obtaining
a good crop the next year: still fingers
the farmers of portions of
Davonshire and Herefordshire. This
old ceremony consists of saluting the
tree with a portion of the contents of
a wassail bowl of cider with toast in
it, by pouring a little of the cider
about the roots, and even hanging a
bit of toast on the branches of the
most barren, the farmer and his men
dancing in cicle round the tree, and
singing rude songs like the following: |
.'Here's to thee. old apple tree,
Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst |
blow;
And whence thou ma msyst bear E sppies anov,
Bushels and sacks full.
HUZZA. |